Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has put his weight behind skipper Rohit Sharma to deliver the goods for the team in the forthcoming ODI World Cup 2023. Manjrekar reckons Rohit’s ability to score big is still there and he is a better batter than he was back in 2019.

Since the ODI World Cup 2019, Rohit has savored success as a Test opener, even while playing in the challenging English conditions. Rohit had scored 368 runs in four Test matches against England in 2021.

Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma top-scored in the ODI World Cup 2019 with 648 runs in nine matches at an average of 81, including five centuries.

“He got 5 hundreds in the last World Cup, right? My assessment of Rohit Sharma is that his defence has actually gotten much better. He is a much better Test player now than he was in 2019. So I have no issues,” Manjrekar told Star Sports.

Rohit batted at the top of his game against Pakistan at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Sunday. Rohit scored 56 runs off just 49 balls and completed his 50th fifty in ODI cricket. The Indian skipper also added 121 runs for the opening alliance with Shubman Gill, who scored a fine knock of 58 runs.

In fact, Rohit was troubled a bit by Naseem Shah in the opening spell but he showed patience at the crease.

“I was absolutely not surprised with the defence he showed today against Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi. It’s about converting those starts into big hundreds because that involves running a lot of ones and twos later on in the innings.

“Today, he got out after fifty. Even earlier in the season, there were occasions when he had got past his fifties and looked good.

“Only time will tell whether he would be able to replicate that. But, on the pure quality of defence, Rohit is better today. That natural ability to hit the big shots is still there. The question is whether he can bring that all together to hit 5 hundreds, 4 hundreds or 3. That time will tell,” Manjrekar added.

Rohit is now only 22 runs away from completing 10000 runs in ODI cricket.